As PA passes resolution on violence against women, men say they are oppressed too

Karachi-Acting Speaker Shehla Raza, accused the male members of the Sindh Assembly of not taking the issues of women seriously as pandemonium broke out in the in the assembly on Thursday.

Raza made this comment after a furore was caused in the House by the remarks of a PPP MPA Sardar Jam Tamachi, who made ‘insensitive remarks’ after a resolution was passed on domestic violence. He had implied that women too tortured their husbans.

The deputy speaker said she did not expect such remarks from a senior legislator. She said that if any member had been ill-treated by his wife, he might be allowed to move a resolution in the House, but they must not show a “non-serious” attitude over women’s issues.

Raza later expunged the remarks of the PPP legislator.The House also saw some women lawmakers walk out of the House in protest over the remarks of Sardar Tamachi while almost all the other women MPAs lodged their protest.

They interrupted his speech whereupon he attempted to walk out of the assembly hall but some of his male colleagues who had been amused by his comments did not let him do so.Home Minister, Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, made certain observations in a lighter vein which too were deemed offensive and expunged from the proceedings by the acting speaker.

Meanwhile, Sardar Tamachi told reporters outside the assembly that he had had no doubts over domestic violence haunting women of the rural areas. However, he also added that women were mentally torturing their husbands in the urban areas.

Earlier, the PA unanimously passed a resolution against domestic violence and also formed a committee to look into the root causes of this scourge. Meanwhile, a private resolution calling for declaring year 2012 as a “child-free year” was deferred till the next private member’s day with the law minister, Ayaz Soomro, observing that the resolution needed to be re-drafted keeping in view the laws and religious sensitivities.

Jam Tamachi, the mover of the resolution, said he deemed “rapid increase” in the population to be one of the major problems and by moving the resolution he meant to lay stress on the need for controlling population growth.

He said the rate of unemployment was rising because the government could not meet the needs of a growing population. Tamachi wondered what the harm was in observing a “child-free year” when Muslims had already been observing Western practices like Valentine’s Day. Dr Zulfiqar Mirza, advised the government to follow the Chinese example in controlling population growth.